Lighting Modifiers

Testing lighting modifiers for portrait lighting. Each of these was shot with essentially the same setup changing only the lighting modifier used on my 580EX flash. All shots include a 430EX flash above to camera right as a hair light and a gray muslin background.

Shoot Through Umbrella
The softest light of the set with surprisingly better control than the white umbrella. Unlike reflecting umbrella shooting through the umbrella brings the light source much closer to the frame. As a result I could set the power on the flash 2/3 of a stop darker than with the white umbrella. Presumably the lower power on the flash resulted in less spill on the background. Lens flare from umbrella resulted in a loss of contrast in this shot.